China's new yuan loans continue to fall

BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- China's new yuan-denominated lending fell to 667.4 billion yuan (107.65 billion U.S. dollars) in May, down from 792.9 billion yuan in April and 1.06 trillion yuan in March, according to data released by the central bank on Sunday.

The figure was also 125.8 billion yuan less than the same period last year, the People's Bank of China said in a statement on its website.

The country's social financing, a measure of funds raised by entities in the real economy, amounted to 1.19 trillion yuan last month, shrinking 576.3 billion yuan compared with that in April.

By the end of May the broad measure of money supply (M2), which covers cash in circulation and all deposits, rose 15.8 percent year on year to 104.21 trillion yuan. The increase was 0.3 percentage points lower than that registered in April, according to the central bank.